for questions about claims based on energy efficiency.
Questions tagged [energy-efficiency]
32 questions
11
votes
0 answers
Can Bitcoin's huge energy footprint be easily reduced?
In Uninhabitable Earth, David Wallace-Wells notes Bitcoin's huge energy footprint ("more electricity than is generated by all the world’s solar panels combined") and asserts that
a simple change to the algorithm could eliminate that Bitcoin…
orome
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11
votes
1 answer
Do calcified water heaters use more energy?
It is very often claimed (by both government energy efficiency experts and water-heater sellers/service people) that calcified heating elements in electrical water heaters lead to much higher energy bills for water heating. Numbers often wildly…
Matija Nalis
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10
votes
1 answer
Do candles emit ten times the carbon dioxide of an equivalent lightbulb?
In Wasteful Earth Hour?, it's claimed that candles emit roughly 10 times the carbon dioxide of light bulbs of the same brightness. While emissions will vary depending on the candle, the lightbulb and the electricity source, is this claim more or…
Andrew Grimm
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10
votes
1 answer
Can an on-the-fly water electrolyzer linked to the air intake improve fuel efficiency of a gasoline engine?
This article initially seems to investigate so-called water powered cars. The final few paragraphs of the article however branches off into discussion about a system where (as I understand it):
A car's electrical system (powered by its alternator)…
Highly Irregular
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9
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0 answers
Is it more environmentally friendly to stir hot drinks with pasta?
In the café where I work, somebody tried introducing pasta, spaghetti in particular, in place of purpose-made wooden sticks, for stirring hot drinks, as it was thought to be more "environmentally friendly".
A number of other people recommend the…
puppybeard
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9
votes
2 answers
How long does it take for renewable technology to recoup its energy cost?
There are a number of technologies which are aimed at producing energy from non-fossil sources, among which very popular are wind power and solar power technologies. However, I have encountered a number of claims (1, 2) that due to the amount of…
StasM
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8
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0 answers
Central heating cheaper to run 24 hours or on timer?
In this day and age where people are constantly being told to save energy to help reduce global warming etc. I have heard many people ("experts" and non-experts alike) say the opposite of each other on this topic and looking online is the…
Chris Rogers
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7
votes
1 answer
Do fluorescent lights use more power to turn on?
I have been told time after time that at school if you are not going to leave the room for more than 10 minutes to keep the lights on instead of turning them off because the amount of power it takes to turn them back on is more than just leaving…
Nick
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6
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0 answers
Does the 3M mouse pad extend battery life up to 50% or 75%?
The 3M company has a product called 3M™ Precise™ Mouse Pad with Repositionable Adhesive Backing and Battery Saving Design, MP200PS that claims to:
Battery saving design extends battery life of wireless mice up to 50%†
Precise™ surface enhances the…
WilliamKF
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6
votes
1 answer
Does Shell's "Nitrogen enriched" gas have positive effects?
Shell gas stations here in Canada claim to be "nitrogen enriched";
WHY SHOULD YOU USE SHELL NITROGEN ENRICHED GASOLINE?
It is the only gasoline that contains the patented and exclusive Shell Nitrogen Enriched Cleaning System
Extensively tested for…
0xDBFB7
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5
votes
1 answer
Does Leonardo DiCaprio fly on private jets?
Does Leonardo DiCaprio fly on private jets?
Example claim: Leonardo DiCaprio flies 8,000 miles in private jet to accept ‘green award'
Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio flew an additional 8,000 miles from
France to New York and back to accept an…
Andrew Grimm
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5
votes
1 answer
Any scientific evidence that bubble wrap on windows lowers energy bills?
These newspaper articles claim that bubble wrap is an effective window insulator:
The Telegraph
Cheap and effective: using bubble wrap on the inside of your windows will help reduce energy bills
NZ Herald
As homeowner Denise Wheoki has…
Gnubie
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5
votes
1 answer
Did Volkswagen, Chrysler and/or GM cut diesel tailpipe emissions by ~99% over a decade?
This article, dated Jan 5, 2014, makes a rather vague claim that
Companies such as Volkswagen AG, Chrysler Group and General Motors have invested billions to make that happen, outfitting vehicles with systems that cut tailpipe emissions by about 99…
Flimzy
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5
votes
1 answer
Does a Geyser Blanket save electricity?
In South Africa a "geyser" is a type of water heater that typically consists of a cylindrical water tank of 100 to 200 Litres capacity heated by an electric heating element of 2kW to 4kW capacity.
A geyser blanket is an insulator that is wrapped…
Jan Vladimir Mostert
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4
votes
0 answers
Can Hemp free us from oil dependency?
Within this article it makes the claim that hemp oil is a viable alternative to crude oil. It doesn't go into any detail. It only states that hemp oil is a "clean fuel" while listing in the title "Hemp could free us from oil", among other things.
To…
user11643